1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to method and apparatus for selecting a golf club most appropriate to a predetermined individual.
2. Description of Prior Art
Fitting an individual golfer with an optimal club can employ a large and expensive inventory of equipment to allow the individual to try various combinations of grip, shaft, and head parameters for a given club. The grip parameters include at least the grip diameter and style. The shaft parameters include at least length, flex point, weight and stiffness. The head parameters may include head weight, head weight distribution, face angle, the angle it which the shaft is mated to the head, and a choice between right-handed and left-handed arrangements. Although each of these variables has a continuous range of values, it is common practice in the manufacture of golf clubs to provide a number of discrete pre-selected values for the most significant of them--for example, there arc five standard shaft stiffnesses, conventionally denoted in the golf equipment art by the letters X, S, R, A, and L, respectively. Even though this use of a restricted number of predetermined values for various parameters renders the number of permutations of possible club configurations finite, the number is still so large as to make it practically impossible for a golf club dealer to address the matter of fitting a golfer with a club by stocking one of every possible different club. As an example, consider a conventional arrangement that bypasses some of the choices by selecting a shaft model and a grip style, carefully fitting a five iron to a golfer, and then using data from that fitting to define an entire set of clubs. To follow this practice exhaustively, one could construct three thousand different clubs using .five values of shaft flexion, four conventional lengths, five grip sizes, three lie angles, five swing weights and providing both right and left handed models.
Notable among prior art patents in this area are:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,533, wherein Williams teaches a gripping sleeve for a sporting implement, the sleeve having a longitudinal slit and having an abrasive coating on its inner surface. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,844, to Ashcraft et al., who teach a try-club arrangement in which one of a number of shafts can be releasably attached to a selected club head. Their arrangement comprises a threaded hosel sleeve attached to the head by means that may include a screw running along the axis of the shaft, but that also has a clamp attaching the head to the shaft. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,209, wherein Benzel shows a golf club grip apparatus enabling a golfer to vary the swing weight of a club by adding weights to a hollow cylinder inserted into the end of the club shaft. Benzel's cylinder is essentially a permanent insert accessed through a cap at the end of the shaft. Benzel does not use removable grips.